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About Us

Meet the Black Mountains Botanicals Team and learn a little more about them....

Lloyd was a mechanical engineer before he became a gin-maker. He spent his life managing commercial heating systems and North Sea oil pipelines. Aged 40, he fancied moving into renewable energy, and went back to university to get a Masters Degree in Science.
Then one night he went to a New Year’s Eve party in a remote Herefordshire pub…
As 2011 became 2012 he met the then-new landlord, Glyn Bufton. They struck up a friendship. And eventually Lloyd moved to Herefordshire, with his wife and two children, and went into business with Glyn.
Lloyd designed and made the two small stills at Black Mountains Botanicals, and named them after his favourite mountains: Twmpa and Blorenge. Building the distillery was just like building an oil rig , only a touch easier.
He also runs a smallholding, with sheep, pigs, hens and bees, which is not easy to do on an oil rig.

Being a founding director of the distillery and working with a great co-director, Glyn, is really rewarding, especially when we have been getting such great feedback from our first ever product, Hill Billy Gin

Glyn grew up in the Herefordshire village of Peterchurch. He had his first drink a few miles away at the tucked-away Bridge Inn, Michaelchurch Escley, in 1997 and has always loved the pub.

He left home to do an apprenticeship and study polymer engineering at London Metropolitan University.

Then in 2011 he came back, with his Colombian wife Gisela, to take over The Bridge, which was then struggling. They turned the pub into an award-winner, well-known for hearty and imaginative food, a good wine list, and a range of local beer and cider.

One night in the pub I just said to Lloyd ‘Why don’t we make spirits?’ We both love Gin, its a product we can sell. It keeps. And it’s fun to make.